I thought that would be a fitting
hymn after the message. I'm almost positive I have good
piano music. Blessed Redeemer 112. O Calvary's mountain, one dreadful
morn, O Christ my Savior, weary and worn, Facing for sinners
death on the cross, that he shall save them from endless loss. Blessed Redeemer, precious Redeemer,
seems now I see him on Calvary's tree. Wounded and bleeding, for
sinners pleading, Blind and unheeding, dying for me. Father forgive
them, thus did he pray. Pain while his lifeblood flowed
fast away. Praying for sinners while in
such woe. No one but Jesus ever loved so. Blessed Redeemer, precious Redeemer,
Seems now I see Him on Calvary's tree. Wounded and bleeding, for
sinners pleading, Blind and unheeding, dying for me. Oh, how I love
Him, Savior and Friend! How can my praises ever find
end? Through years unnumbered on heaven's
shore, My tongue shall praise Him forevermore. Blessed Redeemer, Precious Redeemer,
Seems now I see Him on Calvary's tree. Wounded and bleeding, For
sinners pleading, Blind and unheeding, dying for me. Thank you. Alright, turn with
me to Psalm 28. Psalm 28. Unto thee while I cry,
O Lord, my rock, be not silent to me, lest if thou be silent
to me, I become like them that go down into the pit. Hear the
voice of my supplications when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward
the holy oracle. Draw me not away with the wicked
and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbors,
but mischief is in their hearts. Give them according to their
deeds and according to the wickedness of their endeavors. Give them
after the work of their hands, render them to their desert. Because they
regard not the works of the Lord nor the operation of his hands,
he shall destroy them and not build them up. Blessed be the
Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. The
Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart trusted in him, and
I am helped. Therefore, my heart greatly rejoiceth,
and with my song will I praise him. The Lord is their strength,
and he is the saving strength of his anointed. Save thy people
and bless thine inheritance. Feed them also and lift them
up forever. Let's pray. Father, we're thankful
for this passage of scripture, Father, that you are definitely
our rock. And if you were to go silent,
we would be lost. And Father, we just ask that
you always communicate with us and touch our hearts. And Father,
we're thankful for the pastor that you've given us. Father,
we ask that he's been with us for a long time now. We ask for many, many more years
to come. Father, we just ask that you continue to support
him. And Lord, we ask that you continue to give him the messages
that you would have us to hear. Lord, I ask that you watch over
this congregation. Lord, you raise it up in any
way you see fit. If it's 10 people or 110 people,
Lord, it's entirely up to you. We just ask that you do as you
see fit. Lord, we ask that you just continue
to watch over and care for us in Christ's name. I've got the handout I gave everybody. My song shall be of Jesus. My song shall be of Jesus. His mercy crowns my days. He fills my cup with blessings
and tunes my heart to praise. My song shall be of Jesus, the
precious Lamb of God, who gave Himself my ransom and bought
me with His blood. My song shall be of Jesus when
sin I call to mind His goodness,
and know my joys complete. My song shall be of Jesus, whatever
ills befall. I'll sing the grace that saves
me and triumphs over all. My songs shall be of Jesus while
pressing on my way to where my home shines glorious in pure
and perfect day. And when my soul shall enter
to many mansions fair, a song of praise to Jesus I'll sing
forever there. Boy, that's nice, huh? Be turning with me to Genesis
chapter 7. I'm going to read verse 1. And the Lord said unto Noah,
Come. thou and all thy house into the
ark. For thee have I seen righteous
before me in this generation." You think of what glad tidings
these words must have sounded to Noah when holy God said to
him, come, thou and all thy house into the ark." For some context,
120 years had now passed since the Lord said, my spirit shall
not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh. And what the Lord is saying there
by calling us flesh is we are sinners. We have fallen and rebelled
and transgressed against God. We've sought out many inventions. And we've done many wicked, foolish
things in our hearts, in our minds, in our ways. We are base, sinful creatures
by nature. Now concerning Noah's generation,
their cup is full of the wrath of God. And God is now going
to judge the world that then was in righteousness. But God will be gracious to whom
He will be gracious. And He will show mercy to whom
He will show mercy, and compassion to whom He will show compassion. And the Lord of heaven and earth
says these words, come thou and all thy family into the ark. God didn't send Noah into the
ark. He said, come, come, meet with
me here in the ark. Come into the ark. And in Genesis
7, 4, the Lord says for yet seven days, I will cause it to rain
upon the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living
substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of
the earth." Now this is not a fictitious story. It's not a nursery story
for little children with a boat and a smiling Noah and the faces
of various animals on a border around their room. It holds great
relevance to us in our day. It's not an irrelevant story
that our Lord is telling us. It's very relevant to us because
in it we see the gospel. In it we see the salvation of
our God in His Son, Jesus Christ. The Apostle Peter wrote a good
deal about the flood, and he said that the judgment of the
world that then was being overflowed with water perished. It died. But the heavens and
the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store,
reserved unto fire, against the day of judgment and perdition
of ungodly men." The same word? What is this word which now leadeth
hereto? Which word is this now that is
allowing this world to continue? This open door. What is that
word? Come. Come into the ark. You see, the Lord is not slack,
Peter tells us, concerning his promise, as some men count slackness,
but is long-suffering to us-ward. Now we need to carry that us
through the rest of that verse. Not willing that any of us should
perish, but that all of us should come to repentance. And what is repentance? But it's
turning from false ways, dead works that cannot save us, trusting
in the works of this flesh, trusting in what I've done to recommend
me to God. But he tells us, repent of those
things, put those things away, be turned from that, and look
to Christ. Look to my servant whom I've
sent. He's faithful. He obeyed me well in all things,
and he accomplished the redemption of my people. And all that come
to me in him, I'll receive. I won't turn any away who come
to me in Christ. And Peter tells us in his first
epistle, because that was from the second epistle, chapter 3,
but he tells us in the first one, also chapter 3, the longsuffering
of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was a preparing
wherein few, that is eight souls, were saved by water. We see there
how that God is long-suffering, impatient, while he gathers in
all his chosen seed into the ark, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he sends this word forth,
come, come into the ark. There's a door, John saw it,
there's a door open in heaven. That door is Christ. He opened
the door, He Himself is the door, and we declare Christ. He is the entrance that sinners
gain into the presence of God, being cleansed of all their sin,
made righteous, standing in the white robe given to them by Christ,
who has purged His child of their sins and made them acceptable
unto God, so that we stand before the throne of God Revelation
14 tells us, without fault, before the throne of God. And so the
Father made ready His ark of salvation, and the judgment is
at hand. It came to pass after seven days,
seven days meaning a perfect completion of time. seven days
that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. It came
suddenly, not to God, God had purposed it. God knew exactly
when he would bring the floodwaters and he brought it to pass just
as he said. Our God is a God of promises.
He gives his word and he keeps his word, he fulfills his word,
and that delights us because he's promised to save his people
in and by the Lord Jesus Christ, and he keeps his word. He keeps
his word and assures us. And just as God then made provision
to save one man and all his family in that ark, so our holy God
now promises to save all his family by One man, one man who
is the ark of our salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ. In him all his family, all his
chosen seed, all his adopted sons and daughters are saved
and delivered from the wrath of God which shall be poured
out upon us in the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
The ark is made ready, the Lord Jesus Christ. Come into the ark.
Now in Christ is where holy God meets with his people. That's
why he said come. That's why he didn't say go,
he said come. Come, this is where I'll meet
with you. In the mediator whom I've sent, the mediator between
God and men, the Lord Jesus Christ, the man Christ Jesus, And his
word of promise now goeth forth, gathering together all his lost
sheep into one body, the body of Jesus Christ. He leads us
out of death and darkness. And that's what he says in John
chapter 10, where we see the good shepherd who leadeth us
out. He takes us out of death and
darkness, and he leads us into his green pastures. all his blessings,
all the blessings of God in him. He takes us as one body and leads
us into the one ark, the only ark of salvation, which is the
Lord whom God hath sent. And because of this complete
and entire salvation, which was wrought out for us by Christ
on the cross, which he did alone without any help from man, which
he did for his people, and laying down His life for their life,
to set us free, to give us life by His sin-atoning sacrifice. The scriptures and the prophets
and all the holy apostles bear witness that all who come to
God, all who come to the Father, trusting, believing in Christ's
faithful work and trusting in His precious blood, trusting
in what He has done for us, they shall be received. they shall
be received. God will not turn them away. And God gives us eternal life
in Christ so that we are now delivered from the wrath of God
which cometh upon the wicked, upon the inhabitants of this
earth. The wrath of God is now reigning over them, ready to
fall on the heads of the people, but all those in Christ are delivered
from that inheritance in Adam, for our inheritance is in Christ. We stand to inherit all that
was given to him, to stand before him for all eternity, worshiping
and praising and rejoicing in God our Savior. Now, throughout
God's Word, this testimony is the same, that Christ has redeemed
his people to God with his own blood, so that by his death we
are reconciled to God. And we read this blessed encouragement
in 2 Corinthians 5, verses 18 through 20, All things are of
God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and
hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit, or
namely, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed
unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God to beseech you by us, we pray you,
in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. Come, come in the blood
of Christ, come trusting in his blood. Hear the words of your
God, say it himself. The Father says, come, my people,
enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee. Hear the Son, what he says, come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. And the Spirit says, come! And
let him that is athirst, come! And whosoever will, let him take
of the water of life freely. Freely. All the Godhead, the
triune God, is in agreement, complete agreement, that all
who come, come in Christ, and find rest for your souls in Him. Come into the ark. In the ark the Lord had Noah
prepare many rooms. He said back in chapter six,
verse 14, rooms shalt thou make in the ark. So that within these
rooms a place was prepared. A place was prepared for all
the clean animals. A place was prepared for all
the unclean animals. A place was prepared for the
fowls of the air. and a place was prepared for
all the creeping things that creepeth upon the earth. Look at Genesis 7, 14. They and
every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind,
and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after
his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every
sort. And so the rooms not only housed
these creatures that God had brought in, but a place was made
to lay up in store for them things that they needed, the food that
they needed. and various things to care for
the livestock and the things that they would have. All this
was laid up in these rooms in the Ark for the caring and the
keeping of these beasts and animals and birds and creeping things
that God would call. whichever ones he brought, they
came into the ark. And so everything needed for
every situation was laid up in store in these rooms. Now you think of it, the care
that our God took for these animals and making provision for them,
how much more does he care for you? How much more? If Jonah
was pitying a gourd, how much more does our Father pity us,
his children whom he loves, to whom he will be gracious and
merciful too. He cares and provides everything
for us that we need in the storehouse of Christ. He is the very windows
to heaven through whom we receive all the blessings of God poured
out upon us. And Paul told the Corinthians,
blessed be the God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforted
us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them
which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves
are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ
abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth in Christ. We find in the room of Christ,
in Christ the Ark, every need is met. Every word we need to
hear, every morsel of bread, the bread of heaven that we must
feed upon to strengthen us, to nourish us, to heal us, is all
given freely through our Savior. You know, not a man nor beast
died in that Ark. all were carried safely through. And just as no man died and no
beast died, none came short of the other side of that flood,
so in Christ none shall come short." God has accounted for
the minutest detail. All the things that we go through,
all the trouble we face, all the circumstances and things
that pop up, it's all given in the hand of your God. Trust Him. Everything. Things
that you would change about yourself, about another, don't. Trust God. Trust your Lord. Be thankful
to Him because it's all given to you in Christ for your good. believe Him. So long as we're
looking to change everything about others and ourselves, we're
not satisfied. Rest in your God, trust Him,
give thanks to Him, and you'll see He changes the heart. He
conforms our rebellious heart, and what we would do to what
he is pleased to do and what he's done. Thank him. Christ
said, are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? You get two of
these things for the price of one, the smallest denomination
of a coin in that land, in that kingdom. Are not two sparrows
sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall
on the ground without your father. but the very hairs of your head
are all numbered. Fear ye not, therefore, ye are
of more value than many sparrows. The Father has made full provision,
full provision for you in Christ his Son. He is the ark of salvation. And so every man and every beast
that was outside that ark, they perished under the wrath of God.
But every man and every creature that was inside that ark all
lived. And that tells us, that declares
to us the gospel, that in Christ we live. Outside of Christ there's
only punishment, there's only judgment, there's only death.
Run to Christ, flee to Christ, look to him, believe him, call
out to him, Lord save me, help me. Like the many we read of
in Christ's day when he walked in the flesh, they pushed through
crowds. They climbed up trees to see
him. They sat by the roadside and wouldn't be quiet, but cried
out, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. Cry out to him. Don't hold back. Seek Him. Beg Him for mercy daily,
in the morning, in the afternoon, at night. Cry out to Him. He
is a God of compassion. Shall He not give you good things
who cry out to Him? You, His children, whom He's
made for Himself? He hears you. He'll heal you.
He'll comfort you. He'll bless you in Christ. Now
be turning to Isaiah 26. Go to Isaiah 26, the end of the
chapter. Before the foundation of the earth, God made choice
of a people in love, for his love's sake. And he chose them
in grace and mercy to provide for them. And to provide for
them, he chose his son. He committed us into the hands
of Christ. That's why God speaks to us in
these last days by his son, Jesus Christ, because all things are
given into his hand. And he gave his son, And he sent
him in the fullness of time, born of a woman, made under the
law, and he spared not his own darling beloved son, but shed
his precious blood to make an atonement, a covering for the
sin of his people. And so, having done this to obtain
our redemption, the Father says in Isaiah 26, 20, come, my people,
enter into thy chambers. Come into the room prepared for
you from before the foundation of the world. Shut thy doors
about thee. Hide thyself, as it were, for
a little moment until the indignation be overpassed. For behold, The
Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of
the earth for their iniquity. The earth also shall disclose
her blood, and shall no more cover her slain. You see, the
wicked who would come to God in their own works have no covering
for their sin. All things will be laid bare. The books shall be opened and
everything that man has done shall be revealed out of those
books. And they shall give an account
for those things and be judged for those things. But you, whose
hope is in Christ, you have a covering for your sin. And your name,
therefore, shall be found in the Lamb's book of life." And
God says, they're righteous, justified. And God receives them
into his kingdom forevermore. And so we see in Christ the wisdom
of God our Savior who made full provision for us in the Lamb
of God whom he sent to take away the sin of his people scattered
throughout the world. He's our salvation. He's our
storehouse. In him are rooms full of everything
we need, the healing ointment, His healing word, His comfort,
His peace, His warmth, His arms, His deliverance, His salvation,
it's all in Christ. All in Christ and freely given
to you that trust Him, who follow Him, who have no confidence in
your flesh, in your works, what you do or don't do, but have
every confidence in If I'm to be received by Holy God, if you're
to be received by Holy God, it's for Christ's sake. And you that
know what sinners you are, know it so. Because we have nothing
to boast in of ourselves. Our boast, our hope, our all
is the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Christ tells us in my
Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I wouldn't
have told you. And he said, I go to prepare a place for you. And he did that. He came and
he accomplished. He prepared that place and has
made all things ready. And therefore, we come to Christ. And the sons call for his people
to come. Christ, indeed, did exactly what
the Father sent him to do. He trusted himself entirely to
the Father. He gave His life bearing the
sins of His people. He died in their place. That's
how confident He is in the Father's word of promise. knowing that
the Father would raise him from the dead and not leave his soul
in the grave, not leave him to see corruption, but raised him
from the dead. He is the mediator between God
and men. He is faithful to the Father
and accomplished all that the Father sent him to do. And he
tells us, he speaks of himself so that we would know that by
one offering he hath perfected forever. then that are sanctified,
then that are set apart by God, made holy and righteous by Christ
by one offering, the offering of the Lord Jesus Christ, so
that even the faith by which we believe by which we receive
the promises of God and hear Him, and are settled in our hearts
by Him, even that faith is the fruit of Christ our Savior wrought
in us. For we're His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, to the praise and glory of His
name and honor. Now turn over to Matthew 11.
Matthew 11. And we'll start, we'll begin
in verse 27, don't turn away from Matthew 11. Our Lord assures
his disciples here that he is the promise of God fulfilled
unto them in his coming and what he came to do. He said, all things
are delivered unto me of my father, and no man knoweth the son but
the father, neither knoweth any man the father save the son,
and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him. And so we see
in the obedience of Christ and what He did in laying down His
life on that cross for the sins of His people, we see in His
obedience the will of the Father. He makes us to know God's gracious
will and purpose toward you that believe. God isn't merciful and
gracious to you or I because we're so good. He tells us our
righteousnesses are filthy rags. God isn't pleased with what we
do. He's pleased with what Christ has done. His beloved Son. He's pleased with the Son. And
so we're told by Isaiah, he sums it up this way, saying that Christ
was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace,
the beating out of our peace, the beatings were laid on Christ's
back, was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. And so because of that work accomplished,
Christ says to His people, come unto me, ye that labor and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest. In religion, when we're
stirred up seeing what we are in our hearts and by our sin,
we labor, we strive, and we spend. Isaiah tells us we spend for
things that are not bread, that cannot satisfy. And we invest
a lot of time and energy and resources to give some peace,
some comfort to our hearts for a little time, and it's fleeting. And it doesn't satisfy. It doesn't
settle us. And God, in grace, has made it
that way for his people's good, so that we wouldn't rest in those
things and trust those works of ours, but that we would see
the folly of our own works, of our hands, and come to know the
truth that these things do not save us. They're not our salvation. That we would be turned from
those false and foolish ways and turn to Christ and cry out
to Him. He presses us. He lets us go
down into the pit for a time. He brings us down into the valley
that we would see our need of Him. I heard it said a blessed
way by Brother Kevin Thacker who said, the Lord doesn't leave
us up on the mountaintops all the time. Above the tree line,
sunshine's good for a little bit of time, but eventually you
dry out, you wither, and you die. God brings his children
down into the valley where all the nutrients flow, where all
the settlement settles down and comes down from above and we're
nourished and fed. even in dark times, even in the
valley of the shadow of death. The flesh doesn't like it, but
we know in our hearts, when we're moved and crying out to our God
for peace, for mercy, to receive us again, not for our sakes,
but for Christ's sake, have mercy on me, Lord. We see the good
that it works in us. Because then our eyes are off
of us, and trusting this world and delighting in this world,
and we trust in and delight in him. It's for our good. It's
for our good. And when we're made tender, it's
good for our brethren with whom we fellowship and see. And then we're mindful of the
needs of others. and care for them, just as God
has comforted and cared for us in Christ. And so our Lord does
this in mercy. He says, take my yoke upon you,
verse 29, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart,
and ye shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and
my burden is light. You know, we don't read of Noah
having to coax or to corral or to bind or entrap any of the
animals that came to him. They all were brought to him
by the Lord. Look at Genesis 7 verse 2 and
3 now. He said, of every clean beast
thou shalt take to thee by sevens. They'll come, he says, and you
receive them. I'll bring them to you. You just
have the doors open, and they'll come on in. The male and his
female, and of beasts that are not cleaned by two, the male
and his female, of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male
and the female, to keep seed alive upon the face of all the
earth. It reminds me of the vision that
the Lord gave to Peter when he saw all manner of four-footed
beasts of the earth and wild beasts and creeping things and
fowls of the air. And what did God teach him? The
Lord said, that which I call clean, don't you call common,
polluted, defiled, unclean. Don't call it unclean because
I bring my people. And that's why the Lord has gathered
us. We come from base things. We're
foolish. We put on a good show, but we're
foolish. We're not strong. We're not rich. We have great needs. We're brought
low in many various ways to show us that he's our all. Paul gloried in the glory of
Christ. He gloried in the strength of
Christ. He was thankful when he was made weak because he knew
then that Christ was doing the work. He saw the strength of
his God, the power of his God, to overcome when it seemed darkest
and most unlikely to come to pass. When death was at Paul's
doorstep, he was delivered many, many times by the grace of God. And so the Lord shows us that
he gathers together all kinds of people, not just different
races and different backgrounds and cultures and socioeconomic
things, but he gathers together people with needs lest we should
be exalted above measure and think too highly of ourselves
we see we see what the Lord does you know Corinth went through
many troubles because they were so wealthy so rich and had so
many things to meet their needs but those places that were brought
low were blessed and comforted in Christ and gave much right
they gave much even Philippi gave much to Paul because they
gave out of what they were comforted with by the Lord. They gave to
his kingdom and to his work. And so out of every kindred and
tongue and people and nation, our God gathers us together all
under that one blood, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we all
come, in the blood, in the blood of Christ. And so this is the
promise of God being fulfilled unto us in the giving of his
son. And he calls sinners to Christ. Christ calls sinners to himself
saying, lay down your works, lay down your confidence in self
and believe me, trust me. For if ye believe not that I
am he, he said, you shall die in your sins. Why will you die
in your sins? Come in Christ. Believe Him.
Believe Him. Now we see the willingness of
the Father to save His people. We see the willingness of the
Son to save His people. Let's see the Spirit's part in
the salvation of God's people. The Spirit, we know, was sent
of the Father and of the Son to seek out you and I who were
lost, all the lost sheep of Christ. We can't find ourselves. We don't
even know we're blind. We don't know that we're poor
and blind and wretched and naked and have need of our God's mercy. We don't know that by nature.
But the Spirit comes and He reveals to us. He convicts us. He calls
us and draws us to Christ. He opens our ear to hear what
the Spirit sayeth. He gives the new heart. The Spirit
regenerates us, raising us from the dead. He does Him... He does
Him... renew this flesh, but he makes
a new creature, born of the seed of Christ. We're born again by
the seed of Christ. And so a new creature in Christ
is what our God makes us to be. He's not looking for reformation.
He makes new creatures, new creatures in Christ. Titus 3, 5, it's not
by works of righteousness, which we have done. It's not by turning
things around and getting things straight and doing better and
better. But according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing
of regeneration and renewing, that restoration of the Holy
Ghost, to take the things of Christ and to give them unto
us. We're born again, made alive to hear and to believe the promises
of God in Christ. Now the Spirit takes part in
this gracious call to the people to come to Christ. Look over
in Revelation 22, 17. Revelation 22. And it says there that the Spirit
and the Bride say come. And that's because the Spirit
dwells in us and He doesn't depart from us. And so we see that oneness
of the people who are born again and gathered together into local
assemblies by the Spirit of Christ in us, we say come. The Spirit
says, come. Come, and let him that heareth
say come. And let him that is athirst come,
and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. Come to Christ. He is the promise
of God unto all who come to him, believing him, trusting in his
blood that he is sufficient to save. He saves to the uttermost
all that come unto God by him. Now in closing, let me just say
a few things on what the Lord said at the end of verse 1. In
Genesis 7 verse 1, when he said to Noah, thee have I seen righteous
before me in this generation. Our Lord is speaking here of
the righteousness of faith. The righteousness of faith. Turn
back for a moment to Romans 4. Let's see this in Romans 4. And then after that we'll go
to Hebrews 11. But first in Romans 4, what saith
the scripture? Abraham believed God. and it was counted unto him for
righteousness." You see, Abraham did no work to make himself righteous. He believed the promise of God
that God would justify him, that God would make him righteous.
He believed God. And therefore God imputed righteousness
to him because he had made Abraham righteous. He gave Abraham the
power of God to believe God, to trust him, to do no work,
but to put down his tool from trying to shape the stone and
shape the altar by which he worshiped God. He worshiped him in spirit
and in truth. He believed God. Now salvation
is all of grace, just like Abraham believed God. And so it is so
with Noah. Because of his faith, God imputed
righteousness to Noah. He believed God just like Abraham
believed God. That's the righteousness that
our Lord is speaking of here when he says, to Noah, thee I
have seen righteous before me in this generation. It's the
righteousness which is by faith. Now let's go to Hebrews 11, verse
7, and we'll see this. Hebrews 11, 7. This is the righteousness of
which God testifies that he sees in Noah, or that he sees Noah
standing in. By faith, Noah, being warned
of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared
an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the
world and became heir of the righteousness, which is by faith. It's by faith. How does a sinner
enter the ark of God? How does he come under the blood?
He comes by faith, believing the word of God. God promises,
I'm destroying this world. I destroyed it once with water,
and I'll destroy it again this time as by fire. He's going to
destroy the world. And again, he's doing it because
of our sin, because of the wickedness of man, because of our evil. But God has made full provision
in His Son, Jesus Christ. He is the ark of our salvation. In Him are many rooms prepared
with everything that you and I need to cleanse us from all
sin and unrighteousness, to cleanse our hands of the filth and the
wickedness and the evil deeds which we have done and thought
and said and worked out. They're all put away by Christ. who is a lamb of God who's carried
away the sins of his people and made us free and righteous and
acceptable to our God in perfect holiness. There's not a thing
left undone. Christ has done all the work. He has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in Christ, in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus. Come
into the ark. Enter into Christ by faith, believing
that he is the very salvation of God, that His blood saves
to the uttermost. He's accomplished it. He is the
Savior. He's the Ark of God. Come to
Christ for the forgiveness of sins. To Him give all the prophets
witness, that whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission,
forgiveness of sins. Amen. Brother, would you come and close
us with a hymn and then close us in prayer? Our closing hymn will be 488.
I will sing of my Redeemer. 488. If you want to do that in standing,
that'd be good. I will sing of my Redeemer and
His wondrous love to me. On the cruel cross He suffered
From the curse to set me free. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer With
His blood He purchased me. On the cross He sealed my pardon
Paid the debt and made me free. I will tell the wondrous story,
How my lost estate to save, In His boundless love and mercy
He the ransom freely gave. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer,
With His blood He purchased me, On the cross He sealed my pardon,
Paid the debt and made me free. I will praise my dear Redeemer,
His triumphant power I'll tell, How the victory He giveth over
sin and death and hell. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer,
With His blood He purchased me, On the cross He sealed my pardon,
Paid the dead and made me free. I will sing of my Redeemer and
His heavenly love to me. He from death to life hath brought
me, Son of God, with Him to be. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer,
With His blood He purchased me. On the cross He sealed my pardon, Let's close in prayer. Our heavenly merciful Father,
we thank you, Father, for once again allowing us to assemble
together to hear the unsearchable riches of our Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ, where his name once again was lifted up, and
how we as sinners have seen that we have been redeemed by grace
and mercy, poured out by God the Father. Father, we thank
you for completing this salvation where there is nothing left to
do as sinners, but simply rest and to worship. Father, we thank
you for all that you have done for us thus far. And Lord, we
have heard that today it is our five year anniversary that we
have brother Eric and Michelle with us. And we thank you Lord
for that. And will you continue to be with
him, help him Lord as he studies and continue to give him good
health and strength that he may continue to be with us. Father,
we thank you for all that you have done for us and continue
to watch out for us regarding our health and our strength and
finances and go with us Lord and gather us again at the appointment
time. For Jesus' sake alone, Amen.